“Different countries are classifying carbon sequestration in different ways. It all comes down to the life expectancy of the product. If you have wood in flooring or in a chair, that is around longer than it takes for regeneration of that tree. Let’s say a 50 year cycle. Then that product would be carbon negative for life.If you have something from IKEA that is storing carbon for a year or two and is disposed of because it was used in a dorm room, then the long-term life expectancy is different. How you calculate carbon storage depends a lot on the finished product and how long it is in use.”

“The availability of used pallets is very close, very tight. They just don’t seem to be out there. We’re scratching every day to try to keep our customers satisfied. For lumber, we’re lucky enough to have a mill or two close by that’s doing a good job for us now. But that could change very quickly, depending on what the lumber market does.”

– Frank Hall, chairman of Hallwood Enterprises, page 69

“Let’s look at Amazon. Except for the non-conveyable products, the majority of items that Amazon ships come off a pallet that is stored in its warehouse…The pallet has had one less move. But the pallet is still going to have the same existence. You are still going to need that pallet for storage in the warehouse. You are not going to move that pallet out of the supply chain until the last item is sold. An increase in online retail is not going to have a big impact on the total number of pallets required.”

– Jim Tompkins of Tompkins Intl, a logistics consulting firm, page 10

“What do you do with an employee like this who is an asset in one sense and can also make your life difficult at other times?… I took this guy aside and made rules that I knew he wouldn’t like. First new rule that any day he was late, he had to stay over to make up time. And if he didn’t make up the time he would be making block pallets the next day, and he hated making block pallets. Knowing what this employee disliked gave me leverage to gain some control over the situation. This creative situation worked to improve the situation.”

– Clarence Leising, pallet recycling consultant, page 50

“The economic issues are a bit of a Rubik’s Cube of difficulties for industries working with low-grade hardwood. Finances have become a progressively more significant part of the landscape for everyone in the forest products community from logs through all of the secondary lumber processors along the raw material supply chain. This has created some uncertainty at the mill level that is affecting production levels adversely in a number of areas. Many mills have leaned heavily on industrial hardwood markets as a survival strategy through the deep economic trough.”

– Jeff McBee, market analyst for Pallet Enterprise, page 32

“For any industry, it is critical to understand how energy is being used. A first task in this step is to study and understand your electric power bill. Try to arrange a meeting with your power company so they can explain how your company is being charged and in what ways your firm could make adjustments to save money. In many cases, small changes that require no or minimal capital investments such as different start up times or shutting down equipment in certain peak hours could have a large impact on your company finances.”

– By Dr. Henry Quesada and Dr. Brian Bond of Virginia Tech, page 38

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